President Barack Obama speaks about the economy, jobs, and manufacturing at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.

****

****

President Barack Obama’s visit is aimed at drawing attention to a manufacturing initiative he promised last year at his State of the Union Address, to identify hubs linking ground-breaking research with businesses that could use the innovation commercially.

President Barack Obama tours Vacon, a research and development center and lab for high-power AC drives, with Vacon Vice President Dan Isaksson, left, and Vacon engineer Rod Washington, right, in Durham, N.C.

****

President Barack Obama walks with Vacon’s Dan Isaksson as he tours Vacon, a company that manufactures AC drives

****

President Barack Obama listens to engineer Rod Washington as he tours Vacon, a company that manufactures AC drives. At right is Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

Our son-in-law has an EE degree from NCSU. He graduated Number One in his class and went through in less time than the Navy alloted him. He did enter with 42 transfer hours from University of Tennessee. Mason was little over a year when he began and they had Walker while he was there. We were–and are–very proud of him.

Can Joy Reid take over the Ed slot please? She’s a billion times smarter and knows the priorities. Ed is close to telling people not to vote in the midterms again. Whatever his personal gripes, and even tho he is a fishing enthusiast, he does not realize there is a time to fish and a time to dry nets. It is critical to know when it is time to shut your mouth for the greater good——too much is at stake.

With crap like that, he stands a chance of Democrats turning against him. I’m already disgusted with the Dems’ whining about everything. They need to grow a backbone. I will not donate a dime until they do. They just let the Republicans bully them into submission.

Everyone who listens to Ed needs to email him or contact him in some way. We don’t even bother to turn his show on….my husband did once, and he was just yelling, so click.

I emailed the DNC, the DSCC expressing my disgust at weak kneed Democrats, and telling them to stop griping and get their acts together and be preemptive in getting ads and info out. I told them I was also disgusted that they made the president do all the heavy lifting, that they all should have been supporting the ACA loudly for three years. I also said there are many people here in flyover country who feel the same way.
I wrote OFA, and gave them the suggestion also to get out in front of the Koch brothers, but to tell the country what a Koch ruled land would look like….i.e. West Virginia. I have already received response from OFA thanking me.
Both the DSCC and DNC are concerned with getting their people re-elected, and I think these are two good places to make our feelings known.

I had not watched Ed for a long time and caught some of his show today. Not sure what the Pacific Trade deal involves, but got that Ed was adamant about not wanting it and saying PBO does want it. Can anyone fill me in in it as I got mad at what I heard and turned it off?

From the previous thread, thanks for the heads-up about Schweitzer. I used to see him as an intriguing guy, but he’s forever on my shit list if he keeps criticizing our President. Super a-hole. It’s not even a smart political move, because among Democratic primary voters, there are enough true-blue Obama supporters who would never support someone with this history if he keeps it up. I guess he thinks he can take on Hillary. If he’s the main opposition for the primary, Ironically, it could make those who don’t trust Hillary take more kindly to her because he’s so awful.

Dems need to nominate a true progressive (not a fire-bagger emoPutin) such as VP Biden, Martin O’Malley or Elizabeth Warren.

Not anyone that a PUMA supports. They were so destructive in 2008, and the problems that can’t be laid at the doorstep of GWBush can be laid at WJC’s — just unfathomable that he endorsed the repeal of Glass-Steagal, less than 10 years after the Savings and Loan bailout that was the primary news driver before the first Gulf War.

It was None other than Ed Fox Henry who was Using Violence and avoided the Word Terror. Np wonder Ed Henry even yesterday at the WH Jay’s presser was still talking about the Use of an Act Of terror. These people are Not Humans.

WHPC made the rules for how they get called up for questions. It started decades ago. AP get it first then the usual. Jay does on some occasions, tries to mix it up. One time, Chip Reeds of CBS went off on Jay for daring to try to mix things up.

When the POTUS comes out, he doesn’t have to do it that way. Remember when he didn’t call any of the usual line-up? They all went after Jay and they intensified their wickedness with the Charge of “propaganda” using WH Photos as excuses. Demanding access.

I’ve seen the comments posted here about Morning Joe by Cindy, 99ts and others and did catch a quick glimpse of his show yesterday. Could not believe that his support of Christie was to bring up the Obama non-scandals… Benghazi, IRS and the AP leaks.

The media really has no basis for comparing the clear abuse of power in NJ to how PBO bends over backwards to meet his commitments and respond to the slightest misstep by his thousands of employees.

The media created Christie. They're now unmaking him. Whether he's telling the truth is incidental to that process.

Someone (Meta?) mentioned yesterday that George Miller D-CA is also not seeking re-election.

McKeon is a RWNJ who will no doubt be replaced with another R. He represents the planned communities of nothern Los Angeles county (Santa Clarita, Antelope Valley) and the Death Valley region that extends to the Nevada border.

Attention TOD
The DNC wants to hear from you! I received this email today and I’m sharing it. So go for it!!!

“I’ve been working at the Democratic National Committee for two weeks, and I’m already picking up some pretty important details. I’m not just talking about where to get the best cup of coffee or how to find the printer (though those are important things to know).

I’ve been looking through staffing plans and strategy memos, I’ve been sitting down with department heads, and poring through the budget.

Here’s what I learned: This is an organization that’s ready to win.

Now I’m asking you: How do you want to build a successful Democratic Party not just for today, but for the next generation?

What matters to you?

I’ve worked on campaigns ever since my dad ran for school board when I was eight, and I’ve always loved it. But I also know how easy it is to get tunnel vision — there’s always the temptation to focus on the immediate and forget to plan ahead for our future. At the DNC in particular, that would be a huge mistake.

Most campaigns and committees don’t get to play the long game, but we do. We’re building a bench of future leaders now, so that we have strong candidates to run for office — from president to Congress to city council — in two years and 20 years down the line.

I got this as well. I’m pretty unhappy with the Congressional Democrats right now. They only have to run their small offices while the President has to run the country and they expect him to do their work. I’m so sick of them. They gripe that he doesn’t communicate with them enough. He speaks to the leadership. The Leadership needs to pass it down.

I received that too and wrote back what I’ve been talking about here today…..get those Democratic Senators to stand up for the ACA, stick together, and stop sabotaging the President, and stop wringing their hands and being weak. Do some preemptive ads when they know Koch money is going to hit a state, don’t wait! Told her they should have been supporting the ACA WITH the president for the past three years, as it is the best thing since Medicare.
I’d already written them, but loved this chance to say my piece! ALL of us need to answer this and make our voices heard loud and clear.

Thirty-four US Air Force officers in charge of launching nuclear missiles have been suspended over accusations they cheated on proficiency tests.

The Air Force said a small number of staff had been texting answers to the routine tests to others, while others had known but failed to report it.

The ranks involved range from 2nd lieutenants to captains.

The cheating allegations emerged during investigations into alleged drug use by personnel at other bases.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told a news conference the cheating involved officers based at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, and related to a monthly test all nuclear missile staff must take.

“Some officers did it,” she said of the cheating. “Others apparently knew about it, and it appears that they did nothing, or at least not enough, to stop it or to report it.”

I’m thinking this poison started with Petraeus and McChrystal, and we’re seeing how it seeped down through the grades. I think discipline and standards were lowered during GWB’s admin, so they could get enough people in a volunteer force to go to Iraq and Afghan. We will probably see more of this kind of behavior until it is all cleaned out……it will take a while, like all the effects of GWB, Rummy and Cheney are taking a while to be worked out of the system.

It seems like I hear nothing but bad news about the military now. Countless Generals and Admirals being fired/relieved of duty. The US really needs to rethink the sector that comprises the military and military contractors.

The nuclear segment of the military is a real mess, apparently. Too much time on their hands with nothing really to do.

A judge on Wednesday upheld subsidies at the heart of President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, rejecting one of the main legal challenges to the policy by conservatives opposed to an expansion of the federal government.

A ruling in favor of a lawsuit brought by individuals and businesses in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia would have crippled the implementation of the law by making health insurance unaffordable for many people.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington D.C. wrote that Congress clearly intended to make the subsidies available nationwide under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“There is evidence throughout the statute of Congress’s desire to ensure broad access to affordable health coverage,” the judge wrote.

In 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a requirement of the law, commonly called Obamacare, that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty.

The subsidies, in the form of tax credits, are available to people with annual incomes of up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $94,200 for a family of four.

In one of the pics of President Obama walking onstage in Raleigh, I see what looks like his original body man and current body man are both with him. I have been wondering where his original body man went. I’m so happy to see that he’s back :)

hahahaha – Sarah is looking for money from the few wingnuts who still support her – she’ll no dount get $16 per month from the pensioners (male). Only cost them $12 per month last time – goes up every 4 years.

I am practicing my dance moves, just in case I get my invitation to the First Lady 50th Birthday Party. I don’t want to embarrass myself, the electric side, the twist, the moonwalk, the hustle, and anything else i can think of.

Chips, I’m not sure what’s wrong, but I can’t use the Twitter icon to sign in. I filled in the form myself but I didn’t really pay attention to the Twitter autofill. I get a message that my comment is waiting moderation. Sorry! Twitter did some kind of transformation a few days ago to make it more friendly to mobile users. That might be the problem. I would think WordPress would be working on if it is a problem for everyone. Enjoying your posts!

BobFR mentioned this problem yesterday, and I’m glad he did (Twitter doesn’t work on Chrome for me, and neither does WordPress, so I can only comment on TOD via Microsoft IE.

Don’t know if the Twitter redesign is responsible for the WP glitch though, because my Twitter update happened for me this afternoon, but WP hasn’t allowed me to use Twitter to login yesterday and today.

Yes, Arapaho – I continue, starting yesterday, not to be able to sign into TOD (WP) via Twitter which is a real annoyance to say the least. I don’t have a Facebook account but did click the FB icon to see what would appear and it is similarly non-functional. The WP and Google options do function but I have zero intention of creating a Google account and WP is weird about their account naming convention so I’m not using it.

I believe Twitter did their change on Sunday, I had problems since then. I haven’t tried to sign on because of it but it was definitely yesterday and today. Twitter looks quite a bit different and I have had some gulps and glitches with it. If it’s for everyone using WordPress then they should be working on a fix. BTW, I use Chrome with Twitter. Oh, well. At least I’m not stuck in moderation!

I just came across FLOTUS talking to Mario Lopez of the show Extra, and she was talking to him about what keeps a marriage going and FLOTUS said that friendship, she said you have to like the person, love is still there too, and lots of laughter.